The Massachusetts senator and reigning champion of progressives everywhere arrived right on time Monday afternoon for a campaign event in West Virginia, this one for Democratic Senate hopeful Natalie Tennant, Warren’s latest stop in a national political tour boosting 2014 candidates. Her slight frame slid gingerly out of the passenger side of a blue SUV – her own car, with Bay State plates – and she greeted a volunteer with a golly-gee smile.

“Oh! Looks like it started to sprinkle out here!” Warren said, peeking up at the sky.

There was no entourage, no security detail. Just an aide left behind to park the car. Not knowing where to go, Warren wandered right into the side entrance of the Clarion Hotel in Shepherdstown and strode up to a police officer standing idly.

“Hi, I’m Elizabeth Warren, the senator from Massachusetts,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Well it’s nice to meet you!” the officer replied. Her aide arrived, conveniently in time to box out an advancing reporter, and escorted her down a hallway.

The low-key arrival was not, it turns out, an indicator of the reception she would receive inside.

In a ballroom packed with nearly 400 West Virginians, Warren was greeted like a bona fide celebrity, met with multiple standing ovations, a cascade of selfie attempts and a few shouts of “2016!”

What followed was a pugnacious and folksy speech packed with the kind of full-bodied populist rhetoric that has thrust her into 2016 presidential conversation alongside Hillary Clinton – whether she wants to be there or not.

“The way I see this, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, all those other guys on Wall Street, they’ve got plenty of folks in the United State Senate willing to work on their side,” she said, jabbing her hands into the air to make her points. “We need more people in the U.S. Senate willing to work on the side of America’s families.”

Tennant, she said, “is strong, she is independent, and she won’t let anybody roll over her.”

Warren talked about her working class upbringing in Oklahoma, telling the story of her mother taking on a minimum wage job at Sears, an effort to save their home after her ill father could no longer work. She humble-bragged about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – the “little consumer agency” she helped launch – noting that it’s already recovered $4 billion from banks and credit card companies for American customers. And she bashed Republican opposition to her student loan bill, which would have lowered interest rates but was blocked in the Senate, saying the GOP’s first priority is defending big banks.

“The Republicans say no to raising the minimum wage, they say no to equal pay for equal work, they say we have to cut Social Security in order to make our budget balanced, they say no to those pension promises,” Warren said sternly. “They say it’s more important to stand up for Wall Street than it is to stand up for families across this county. Well I tell you what. They can say it, but they are going to lose.”

That the country’s most famous liberal showed up here, in a conservative-trending state that hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1996 despite its deep Democratic roots, was a bit unusual.

Tennant, trailing her Republican opponent Shelly Moore Capito by 10 points in the polls, has been distancing herself from President Obama throughout her campaign, pushing back most recently against new Environmental Protection Agency’s rules aimed at reducing coal emissions by 30% over the next 15 years. Tennant on Monday went so far as to call the regulations “disgusting.”

But Warren, too, has praised the EPA proposal – putting Tennant in the tricky spot of explaining why she would appear with Warren but not the President. Tennant gamely tried to defuse the situation in a session with reporters, many of whom made the short drive from Washington to the state’s eastern panhandle.

“We don’t agree on everything,” Tennant said. “We are here today to talk about education, about lifting the middle class, about saying no to Wall Street.” As for Obama? “If the President came to West Virginia, he would have a lot of explaining to do when it comes to these energy jobs and our coal jobs,” Tennant said.

She framed her speech the same way – embracing Warren’s middle class populism in full, but distancing herself from anything touching on Obama and coal.

Tennant was rolling out a new education plan and lavished praise on Warren’s student loan reform bill. More than once, she blasted “corporate greed” – and threw darts at House Republicans for proposing Medicare cuts and allowing unemployment benefits to expire last year. Those were none-too-subtle jabs aimed at Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, who was five hours away in Charleston campaigning for Capito, an effort to steal some of Warren’s earned media thunder.

“Washington was all too happy to help out Wall Street but when our friends and neighbors in West Virginia needed a helping hand when they were looking for work, Washington had no help for them,” Tennant said.

That was just the warm-up act. Warren was the main event, attracting an adoring audience that included a number of high school and college students who said they appreciated her student loan push.

Without prompting, others said they hoped she would seek the Democratic presidential nomination.

“She speaks up for the underdog,” said Warren McKimmie, a self-described liberal from Harper’s Ferry. “She is the only one who speaks up for the underdog. I am very torn because I want a Democrat in the White House, but I’m not sure its Hillary. To me she would be more of the same. Warren is a fighter for us.”

On the way to her car after the rally, Warren was asked how it felt to be met by such friendly audiences on the campaign trail. Similar crowds have met her in Kentucky and Oregon and Ohio – and she’s a shoo-in for a standing ovation at the liberal Netroots Nation conference later this week in Detroit.

“People understand what’s going on,” Warren said. “They know what’s at stake in the races in 2014, and they are willing to get out there and fight. That’s what I see in those crowds. That’s what I love in those crowds.”

Before reporters could follow up with other questions, Jane Yearout – the head of the Berkeley County Democratic Party – ran up to her car screaming. Like Warren, she said was an Oklahoma native, and she wanted a hug. Warren gave her one, then departed.

soundoff(922 Responses)

Please spare me this tripe. She is nothing more than just another Liberal adding to the problems of this country. She's no more a rock star than am I.

July 15, 2014 11:54 pm at 11:54 pm |

All2Much4Me

I might believe 10% of these comments, if they weren't all so bad. Looks to me like someone is trying to do their best to undermine her Presidential bid. Not going to work, she speaks for the people, and I sure don't hear anyone else doing that! She has my vote and if she doesn't run, I'll write her name in on my ballot.

July 15, 2014 11:55 pm at 11:55 pm |

Rob

Says the multi-millionaire communist – socialist to the lower and middle class [what a frigging hypocrite] do as I say not as I do or have done…

July 16, 2014 12:01 am at 12:01 am |

All2Much4Me

Looks to me like someone is trying to undermine Warren's Presidential bid. Not going to work, she speaks for the people and I sure don't see anyone else doing that!

July 16, 2014 12:05 am at 12:05 am |

Jm in San Diego

"The Beverly Hillbillies" had the character of Granny all those years ago. She's ba-a-a-ack!

July 16, 2014 12:44 am at 12:44 am |

Pastor Russ

Wickedness is, as wickedness does! She can't escape who she is.

July 16, 2014 01:07 am at 1:07 am |

amoureux de la vie

If she is the "Dems New Rock Star", then they are tone deaf.

July 16, 2014 01:15 am at 1:15 am |

scneocon

I wonder which successful progressive policy Taxagawea plans on hanging her scalp on?

Poor righotwingers cannot stand her intelligence or causes for the middle-class. They attack her personally in hopes that it will quiet her. She is a juggernaut, like her or not.

July 16, 2014 06:06 am at 6:06 am |

R. T. Greenwood

Don't be fooled by Tennant. She will be voting Obama's agenda top to bottom.

July 16, 2014 06:26 am at 6:26 am |

Steve G

Elizabeth Warren is so far to the left that she will appeal only to the extremely low information voters and college professors.

July 16, 2014 06:33 am at 6:33 am |

charlie

Does she want to revert to using WAMPUM? With her self-ordained Native American heritage, lets go all the
way.

July 16, 2014 06:36 am at 6:36 am |

ColAinSC

Man, would I love to see this train wreck if she decides to run. She could give Sheila Jackson-Lee a real run for the money in a Democrat stupid-off.

July 16, 2014 07:04 am at 7:04 am |

mike

Elizabeth Warren is no darling, more like a liar, wall street bash just another straw man, tried and true the lib way. All emotion no logic.

July 16, 2014 08:19 am at 8:19 am |

Anonymous

Oh great! Obamas' answer to Hillary. Another friggin moron in a skirt. Along with Hillary and Obama, that makes three! Next they'll be shouting from the rooftops about the fake "War on Women". Disgusting!